Ethical Issues Related to Assessing Decision Making Capacity
CASE 29-1 CASE DESCRIPTION Ms. S. is a 74-year-old woman with colorectal cancer metastatic to liver and brain. Although she has told friends that she no longer wants aggressive therapy…
ONCOLOGY
Communication and Coordination
Coordination of care between oncologists and geriatricians is essential in the care of patients with cancer. Geriatric patients with cancer often have multiple complex comorbidities, making their oncology care more…
Palliative Care, Hospice and End of Life
Cancer is a feared diagnosis at any age and, for the older patient, it can present a greater challenge and options for cure may be more limited. Traditional cancer care…
Caregiver Burden
A cancer diagnosis is often acute in onset and sparks an abrupt need for diagnostic and treatment decisions for the patient and family. Family members find that the patient’s cancer…
Surveillance
As defined by the Institute of Medicine, surveillance in the context of the treatment of cancer survivors encompasses three elements: surveillance for cancer recurrence, surveillance for second cancers, and surveillance…
Managing the Older Cancer Patient at Home
It is estimated that by the year 2050, about 79 million individuals in the United States will be older than 65 years. Older adults are the fastest growing segment in…
Long Term Effects and Cancer Survivorship in the Older Patient
CASE 24-1 CASE 1: OLDER BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR PRESENTATION M.H. is an 87-year-old woman who has been a breast cancer survivor for several years. She had been diagnosed 6 years…
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Older Cancer Patient
CASE 21-1 CASE HISTORY J.D. is a 76-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer. She was diagnosed a little over 3 years ago with a 2.3 cm poorly differentiated…
The Role of Rehabilitation in the Older Patient with Cancer
CASE 22-1 B.S. is a 77-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer, diagnosed at age 56 when she was found to have a right upper quadrant breast mass on…
Nutritional Support for the Older Cancer Patient
CASE 20-1 CASE DESCRIPTION An 80-year-old man has had a several-year history of low-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma with a presacral mass and systemic light chain amyloidosis involving the heart, the…
